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Reports suggest Less and Longer episodes for Series 11

According to this that I read on Digital Spy we can look forward to 10 longer episodes for Series 11 of Doctor Who.

Now I might just be getting old but this doesn't exactly fill me with excitement. Yet again the formula is (apparently) being messed with. What's wrong with the 45 minute episode. I think if the writers get it right, that's just the right fit for an episode. Of course, you can have an extended episode for the opener for the finale but, and I hope I'm wrong I don't see this working.

Couple that with the impending debut of a female Doctor (which granted may prove the doubters - including me wrong) but this is also set to divide fans further than it has done already.

I will be watching but I'm not sure I've looked forward to a season less since the show came back.

i thought that the whole point of the 'traditional' 45 minute episode timing was to fit in with international (and domestic) commercial stations to allow 15 minutes of adverts to be inserted and still fill the hour time slot.

How is a 60 minute episode going to work outside the BBC and Netflix environments?

Having said that its a positive thing as long as the writing is good enough. sometimes the 45 minute stories with beginning, middle, and end feel a bit rushed especially on their resolutions.

It think it's a case of quality over quantity..
10hour long episodes that are not rushed and have time to breathe.
And hopefully cut some of the filler episodes like the lodger,fear her, closing time ect..
Also if the budgets the same it means the budget from the 3 cut episodes would extend the budget for the 10.
Smart move when you think about it this way...
It's not a move to piss off fans an attempt to change things around and keep it fresh...

I'm not sure why people want episodes with time to breathe. The last series was done this way and lost a million and a half viewers.

I'm not suggesting it should be a Michael Bay action-fest. Not at all. Basically the stories have to be well written and engage the viewer which looking back the last series didn't. (Mostly). Of course that's just my opinion but i think we'll all agree that the writing has to step up in terms of quality no matter how long the episodes are.

While this may well end up being the case (and to be honest I think it will work well, there's been many a 45 min ep that ended up being too rushed as well as some two parters that could have been told in 60 mins rather than 90) there's no official word on this at the moment.

AFAIK There's been two sources for this so far, the Mirror article and a poster on here who said they had a friend in the production team (posted the info weeks ago).

Two different sources may make it more likely but it still could be the case where the Mirrors source is just the post on this forum (has happened before) and that post was just made up (has happened before).

The problem with a 10 or 12 episode series is that it just seems to be over far too quickly, you spend a year or more looking forward to it, then it rushes by and you're left with that boring void again.

Solution - cut the episodes to 25-30 minutes with a cliffhanger in the middle and have twice as many episodes meaning the run could last for up to six months of the year. And preferably broadcast it at around 5:20pm after Grandstand

The problem with a 10 or 12 episode series is that it just seems to be over far too quickly, you spend a year or more looking forward to it, then it rushes by and you're left with that boring void again.

Solution - cut the episodes to 25-30 minutes with a cliffhanger in the middle and have twice as many episodes meaning the run could last for up to six months of the year. And preferably broadcast it at around 5:20pm after Grandstand

Grandstand eh? That takes me back.

I accept the point that times change and they have changed. I'm just really hoping the extra episode times (if indeed they come to pass) mean more time for adventures in time and space and less Eastenders in Space, if you catch my drift.

I would not be surprised if the same people trying to clam such a thing is some underhanded devious way of saving money was the same people moaning about how much certain big names got paid and how the BBC should be responsible with "their" money

i thought that the whole point of the 'traditional' 45 minute episode timing was to fit in with international (and domestic) commercial stations to allow 15 minutes of adverts to be inserted and still fill the hour time slot.

How is a 60 minute episode going to work outside the BBC and Netflix environments?

Having said that its a positive thing as long as the writing is good enough. sometimes the 45 minute stories with beginning, middle, and end feel a bit rushed especially on their resolutions.

I don't know about other countries but BBC America will definitely broadcast the whole hour - probably in a 75-90 minute slot. It's re-runs that will be the problem. Some episodes are already cut down when they're shown on 'Watch'

i thought that the whole point of the 'traditional' 45 minute episode timing was to fit in with international (and domestic) commercial stations to allow 15 minutes of adverts to be inserted and still fill the hour time slot.

How is a 60 minute episode going to work outside the BBC and Netflix environments?

Having said that its a positive thing as long as the writing is good enough. sometimes the 45 minute stories with beginning, middle, and end feel a bit rushed especially on their resolutions.

But then not every episode has been 45 minutes anyway. Leaving aside finales, which are often longer, many episodes have been 50 minutes, I don't know how commercial stations showed those?

There have been episodes that have fitted the 45 minute run like a glove. I can’t see Blink, Girl In The Fireplace, Hell Bent, Midnight and many others benefitting from an extra 15 minutes . It is the 45 minute run that has forced such episodes to speed along whilst still managing to contain many lengthy dialogue scenes. Then again, there are many that would benefit from an extra quarter of an hour. Especially where the build up results in a quick resolution. (Quick resolutions don’t really bother me that much as long as the episode was engaging.) And then then are episodes that by the 45 minute mark you are glad it’s all over. A dull episode certainly does not require more air time.

Again, it all depends on how it is written and paced and how that works over a full series. I think the majority of the RTD era was well paced, regardless if the episodes was good or bad, and overall really suited the 45 minute runtime. For the most part, I think the Moffat era struggled with it’s pacing , and for many episodes an extra 15 minutes may have been unfavourable.

It will be interesting to see either way. Doctor Who has to be many things within a single episode. Get that right and the viewer will want that extra 15 minutes. Get it wrong and it could cause problems over the run of a series.